Chapter 11 #2
Nikos straightened. “What do you mean ‘there’? You can’t be talking—” His voice had a rough edge of disbelief as he realized what Markos was saying. “It was a war zone. There’s no way she could have been there. She would’ve been, what… fourteen?”
“Yeah, but she wasn’t the only one,” Markos reminded him.
His gaze flicked to Kiki. She stiffened, her arms crossing tightly over her chest. Her mouth pursed. Her eyes darkened. She looked suddenly younger, fragile—but not weak.
“Her name is Brie— Look, I don’t have time to explain everything,” she said, her voice quiet but strained. “All you need to know is that you’re both in danger. We need to get out of here as soon as possible,” she said.
That hit Nikos like a slap. “Danger from whom?”
Kiki looked at him, and something in her expression unraveled him. Not fear. Grief. She looked like someone who’d spent her life running and was exhausted from always being two steps ahead.
“I wasn’t the only one with… abilities,” she said. “There was a boy—his name is Eric. He had a gift for finding people. For tracking. If they’re looking for you, he’ll find you.”
Jim spoke up from the kitchen, his usual snark stripped away. “How do you know they’re after Nikos?”
Kiki hesitated, then said, “I overheard them. I thought they were only after Nikos, but I discovered they plan to kidnap you both. I knew where to be because… because I saw them take you, in a vision.” She turned to Nikos fully now.
“That’s what happened earlier… when I—when I took the memory of our kiss. ”
Nikos’s stomach dropped.
“How many of them?” he asked, his voice tight.
“Four men. Waiting in the parking garage. I recognized the address as a swanky apartment building in the upper East Side. I saw them ambush your bodyguards. They killed them and drugged you, Nikos. You were wearing the same clothes as you are now, so I knew,” she drew in a shuddering breath before she continued, “They would use you to get information out of your brother. That’s how they work. ”
“Who is ‘they’?” Markos asked.
Kiki twisted her hands together, studying the group staring at her. “The Founders… they have a lot more than four men, Nikos. They were the ones behind Markos’s capture. They were the ones who killed my mother and locked Eric, Brie, and me away.”
His blood iced over.
Markos was silent as a tomb, his eyes blazing.
Nikos ran a hand down his face. “You put yourself in danger to confirm the vision.”
She looked at him askance with amusement. “No, I intended to kill them. I don’t have any reason to doubt my vision. But I left when I heard Eric’s voice,” she replied. “I-I’m pretty sure he didn’t sense me.”
Nikos frowned. “Why do they want Markos? I don’t get it. Why now?”
Kiki didn’t answer at first. Why would the Founders suddenly be interested in Markos after all these years? The answer was so obvious, she almost slapped herself in the head.
Instead, she turned—slowly, deliberately—and looked at Markos. The tension snapped like a wire pulled too tight.
Markos avoided their eyes. His shoulders bunched. His lips flattened into a tight line.
“Markos,” Nikos said, a warning in his voice.
Kiki reached out, gently placing her fingers on Markos’s arm. “Tell them.”
Markos stared at her touch, then let out a harsh, angry breath and stood up, walking a few feet away before turning back.
“I’ve been talking to Brie,” he said flatly.
The room dropped into silence.
“How long?” Kiki asked, her eyes narrowed.
“She reached out to me a few weeks ago.”
Nikos’s mind reeled. “You… talked to this girl—this Brie—the one that was at the compound eight years ago? She was what—fourteen, as well?”
“Sixteen,” Kiki corrected.
Markos nodded. “I’ve been searching for her for years. One of my searches alerted her that I was looking.”
Kiki turned, eyes wide with concern. “That’s why they’re targeting you now. They must have been monitoring you as well.”
Markos sighed and looked down at his clasped hands.
Nikos sat down slowly. “Jesus. I never knew—you never mentioned anything. If I had known, I could have helped.”
Markos grimaced and gave him a sheepish smile. “Why do you think I was so gung ho about going in with you and Theo when you mentioned starting the security firm after we got out of the service?”
“Why? Why would you spend eight years searching for a teenager?” Nikos asked.
Markos scowled and stood, shoving his hands into his pockets. “She’s not a teenager now.”
“That still doesn’t explain why you’re obsessed with this Brie,” Nikos snapped back, trying to understand.
“Because she saved his life. She’s special, too,” Kiki said.
She moved to stand near him. Not touching, but close enough that he could feel her warmth.
He turned to her. “What do you mean by special?”
Kiki groaned in frustration. “I want to explain everything, but we really need to go. Not only could those men show up any minute—if Markos was monitored, then you were likely, too. That will lead them to me—plus Markos is parked in a no-parking zone. We’re going to need it to get out of here.
I also have to erase Jim and Harvey’s memories of me, you, everything! ”
“What do you mean erase our memories? Why do you have to do that?” Jim protested.
Kiki gave Jim and Harvey an apologetic look. “If they even suspect that you know anything about me, they’ll hurt you. They’ll use you to get to me and hurt you to get the other to talk. If I take your memory, it will help protect you.”
“Can you, I don’t know… add a timer or expiration date, so we remember you again?” Harvey asked hopefully.
Kiki’s eyes shimmered with tears. “No.”
“But—Nikos’s memory came back,” Jim said with a frown, looking at him.
Kiki looked at him as well. “I was in a hurry and didn’t have time to erase it properly. I will with you. It’s the only way I can keep you safe.”
He suspected her excuse covered something much deeper. Fear twisted in his gut at the thought that she could have erased their date completely from his mind. He lifted a hand and rubbed it against his chest, over his heart, when a feeling of emptiness and grief swept through him.
“How long have you been running like this?” he asked in a quiet voice.
“Eight years. Brie and I escaped at the same time as Markos,” she whispered.
“Thank you, by the way. They were going to kill me,” Markos said.
“Don’t thank me. It was Brie… and another friend,” she said, turning to Jim. “Jim, I need anything that may have my name on it, including your phones.” She turned to Nikos and Markos. “Can you two please erase my contact information and any calls from their phones?”
Nikos nodded. “I’ll also contact Andri and have him do a deep clean of any phone and leasing records.”
She nodded her thanks.
Nikos reached out and clasped her hand. She didn’t pull away. He felt a shift inside him when he touched her. As if a missing part of him had been found.
He wasn’t going to let her run anymore. Not alone.
“It’s time to stop running, Kiki,” he said, his voice like steel. “We take the fight to them.”
Kiki blinked at him. “You don’t know who they are, Nikos. They are extremely powerful, dangerous people.”
“So are we,” Nikos said, cutting his gaze toward Markos, steel hardening his voice.
She looked down at their joined hands, then back into his eyes. “You have no idea what you’re getting into.”
Nikos gave her a slow, crooked smile. “How about you let me be the judge of that?”
Hope warred with doubt as a wave of emotions swept across her face before her expression softened.
“We still need a safe spot—with an exit plan,” she said, worrying her lip.
Markos chuckled and nodded to him. “As someone recently told me, let us handle the exit.